s.' Dumps was evidently good-natured on the faith
of his anticipations.

'Thank you, uncle,' said his agitated nephew, grasping his hand as warmly
as if he had done him some essential service. 'Perhaps I had better not
tell Mrs. K. what you have mentioned.'

'Why, if she's low-spirited, perhaps you had better not mention the
melancholy case to her,' returned Dumps, who of course had invented the
whole story; 'though perhaps it would be but doing your duty as a husband
to prepare her for the _worst_.'

A day or two afterwards, as Dumps was perusing a morning paper at the
chop-house which he regularly frequented, the following-paragraph met his
eyes:--

'_Births_.--On Saturday, the 18th inst., in Great Russell-street, the
lady of Charles Kitterbell, Esq., of a son.'

'It _is_ a boy!' he exclaimed, dashing down the paper, to the
astonishment of the waiters. 'It _is_ a boy!' But he speedily regained
his composure as his eye rested on a paragraph quoting the number of
infant deaths from the bills of mortality.

Six weeks passed away, and as no communication had been received from the
Kitterbells, Dumps was beginning to flatter himself that the child was
dead, when the following note painfully resolved his doubts:--

'_Great Russell-street_,
_Monday morning_.

'DEAR UNCLE,--You will be delighted to hear that my dear Jemima has
left her room, and that your future godson is getting on capitally.
He was very thin at first, but he is getting much larger, and nurse
says he is filling out every day. He cries a good deal, and is a
very singular colour, which made Jemima and me rather uncomfortable;
but as nurse says it's natural, and as of course we know nothing
about these things yet, we are quite satisfied with what nurse says.
We think he will be a sharp child; and nurse says she's sure he will,
because he never goes to sleep. You will readily believe that we are
all very happy, only we're a little worn out for want of rest, as he
keeps us awake all night; but this we must expect, nurse says, for
the first six or eight months. He has been vaccinated, but in
consequence of the operation being rather awkwardly performed, some
small particles of glass were introduced into the arm with the
matter. Perhaps this may in some degree account for his b